This is my Week 5 CRITICAL account of how you think art and literature interact in a person’s experience?
The unique experience that art and literature provoke from the human psyche, allows humans to garner deeper insights which would be unachievable from plain facts or evidence.
The journey through an art gallery encapsulates the audience in a moment or situation in history. Each picture and representation of a moment creates a reaction from each individual. This affect is also found in literature. The journey through a book or poem positions readers in a moment in time and triggers a reflection on that moment or its representation. The feelings of disillusionment or disruption is not lost on audiences experiencing the art; the author or artist has effectively replicated the emotions from the time. The gallery or library can be a repository of societies collective history and experiences. Art preserves what factual texts and historical documents cannot; how it feels to experience and exist in a specific place at a specific time.
The poet e.e.cummings, embodies the fluidity of the substitution of Art and Literature. In his poem “in Just—” he encourages audiences to look at his poem and read between the enjambement and unfinished lines. Much like, Judith Wright’s Poem “Niggers Leap – New England”, where she leaves a large gap between her first and second stanza to perhaps signify the fall from the cliff that she is describing in her poem. These unspoken meanings of the poetry reflect the notion that art and literature should both be ‘looked’ upon. The meanings of these poems change and therefore assist in disturbing the personal experience, for the individual to find more and deeper meaning.
Victoria Martin's Literature Blog 